The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting visual defects in a cigarette during cigarette manufacture.
Cigarette rods coming from a cigarette making machine are generally inspected by visual means along their length and around their circumference to determine visually if the cigarette rods meet certain preselected requirements. Presently, inspection of cigarettes occur by the use of cylindrically shaped drums which transfer the cigarette rods from a maker wherein 180.degree. of the circumferential surface of the cigarette rod is inspected at a time by different types of scanning means as the cigarette rods move from drum to drum. There are a number of apparatuses noted in the prior art which utilize drum to drum inspection, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,249 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,462. However, this inspection of 180.degree. of the circumference is compromised by the curvature of the cigarette so that a true, accurate inspection takes place from only about 120.degree. to 130.degree. of the inspection plane. That is, each half is visual or scannable only along 120.degree. of each 180.degree.. Thus, approximately one-third of each visual or scannable half of a cigarette is not inspected by present methods.